Electrodeposition of Copper and Silver Nanowires in Hierarchical Mesoporous Silica/Anodic Alumina Nanostructures

Abstract

Copper, silver, and tellurium nanowires were electrodeposited into a hierarchical channel structure formed from columnar silica mesophases inside of anodic alumina membranes. The resulting wires were structurally and spectroscopically characterized within the host matrix, in the partially dissolved matrix, and completely removed from the matrix with electron microscopy methods. Plan view images of wires featuring 10 nm diameter within the intact matrix showed the successful replication of the hexagonal arrangement of the columnar mesoporous system. Dissolving only the alumina while leaving the silica mesophase still intact, the long-range organization of the mesoporous system could be visualized. Finally, by completely dissolving the matrix (both alumina and silica), silver wires in the form of bundles of individual wires of about 10 nm diameter could be obtained.

A simple electrochemical method for conversion of Pt wires to Pt concave icosahedra and nanocubes on carbon paper for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

“…In order to control the morphology of noble metal nanostructures using the electrochemical method, anodic aluminum oxide membranes or mesoporous silicon templates are normally used [29][30][31][32]. However, further process is required to remove these templates in order to purify noble metal nanomaterials used for various applications including electrocatalysis.…”

Supercritical fluid electrodeposition, structural and electrical characterisation of tellurium nanowires

“…For many of the potential TeNW applications it is desirable to have structural order, which can be achieved by the use of hard templates such as mesoporous silica, 14 track etched polycarbonate membranes 15 or anodic aluminium oxide (AAO). 16,17 Here there is no ne tuning of chemical or thermal parameters required to achieve the right nanowire dimensions and ordered arrays are formed in one step.…”

“…However, of the 43 papers describing Te nanowires reviewed in Table S1 of the ESI, † only six report electrodeposition of Te and of these only four use porous templates as a route to TeNW formation. One of these four uses a hierarchical mesoporous silica-anodic alumina template 14 and the other three use AAO templates. 16,17,19 The $60 nm TeNWs produced in AAO by Ivanuo et al 16 were amorphous whereas those produced by Zhao et al 17 were crystalline, typically 60 nm diameter, with characteristic growth perpendicular to the (001) crystal planes.…”

Utilising solution dispersed platinum nanoparticles to direct the growth of electrodeposited platinum nanostructures and its influence on the electrocatalytic oxidation of small organic molecules

“…This is particularly useful given the critical role the aforementioned properties play in electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and electroanalytical chemistry. There are several approaches that can be undertaken to achieve a desired nanostructure such as using hard templates like anodised alumina [8,9], chemical templating with surfactants [10,11], inorganic ions [12,13], in situ underpotential deposition of a second metal [14], hydrogen bubbling [4,[15][16][17][18], or in the absence of any template via appropriate choice of metal precursor concentration and the applied potential/current waveform, time and temperature [19][20][21][22]. This illustrates the vast amount of parameters available for the creation of a wide range of interesting materials.…”